Specifics of the Adult Healthcare System Formation of the New Socialist Industrial Cities of the Last Third of the 20th Century

Abstract

The author analyzes the therapeutic service development of the young city of the era of “developed socialism”, which eventually becomes the basis for the creation of the urban healthcare system in the late Soviet industrial centers. Both problems and achievements of its development are identified along with specific features of the urban healthcare system that had been formed at the beginning of the “Perestroika”, which eventually sharply distinguished the new socialist industrial centers from the cities of the European part of the country. During the period under consideration, a lot of work was done to establish a therapeutic service in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny. At the time the construction of industrial enterprises began, there was only one therapeutic unit in the central district hospital in the city. Later, hospitals and out-patient clinics were opened, healthcare centers and workshop services operated to treat the workers. Therapy was the basis of all specialized medical services, therefore, building up this service largely met the needs of the city under construction. As a result, specialized units were established on the basis of the therapeutic service, which subsequently operated as independent services. In the context of rapid demographic growth, the city was constantly expanding the network of medical institutions, increasing the number of employees along with facilities and equipment potential of medical institutions. This became the basis for the main result of the city’s therapeutic service activities during this period, i.e. the transition from the territorial-production principle of its patient service towards the territorial-specialized one. These undoubtedly positive results made it possible to maintain positive dynamics in the development of the city’s healthcare system in the subsequent years of the “Perestroika” and the collapse of the USSR, when the state of the industry as a whole declined sharply throughout the country. Keywords: history of healthcare, therapeutic service, USSR, Naberezhnye Chelny, prevention and treatment institutions, developed socialism.